In the modern era of pass/fail medical school curricula and United States Medical Licensing Examination exams, research involvement has emerged as one of the most effective methods to increase competitiveness for residency. The benefits of research go beyond just adding publications to your CV; with research comes an opportunity to demonstrate commitment to IR and connect you with potential letter writers, both of which are among the most important factors considered during residency selection. From 2018 to 2024, the mean number of abstracts, presentations and publications by matched IR MD applicants nearly doubled from 8.4 to 15.8. At the very least, this change signifies an ever-increasing baseline for what it means to be a “competitive” IR applicant.
The purpose of this article is to detail five action items you can implement to set you up for success in research throughout medical school.
1. Mentorship
The most important thing you can do as a medical student researcher is to find a good mentor. Unless you are a non-traditional medical student with a PhD who is already plugged into a lab with tons of experience, then chances are you will need someone to show you the ins and outs of research in medicine. This is particularly true for IR research, because medical students get virtually no exposure to IR during medical school. Therefore, an IR research mentor would help you understand not only the basics of research, but also the basics of IR.
But what should you look for in a “good” research mentor? First and foremost is a history of frequent publication, which can be found with a quick search on PubMed. An extra bonus would be if that mentor has a history of publishing with medical students. Not all attendings at academic institutions publish often, and not all attendings want to work intimately with medical students.
How do you find a mentor like that? Upperclassmen planning on applying into IR or those who have recently matched in IR from your school are your best resource; they will tell you who the right people are in your institution or elsewhere. Before reaching out to a potential mentor, make sure you do diligence to know about their research.
2. Tools of the trade
The skills you will need largely depend on your role on the research team. As a medical student, most likely you will be reviewing charts and literature, writing manuscripts and completing statistical analyses.
Most data collection from a chart review will be documented in an Excel spreadsheet, so become familiar with Excel and how to properly input data points. Spend time with your mentor to properly structure your database before conducting chart review or else you might have to recollect data later.
With regards to literature review and writing manuscripts, it is absolutely essential that you use a citation manager such as Endnote or Zotero. This will help you organize all the articles you read and makes formatting citations in the manuscript easier. See if your school provides a subscription to a citation manager and watch a video on how to integrate it with programs like Word. The learning curve is not steep, and it will save you a lot of trouble.
Many academic institutions will have in-house statisticians that can perform analyses but be aware that they are hot commodities and it can take some time for them to get to your project. Knowing the basics of programs such as R or SPSS can help you run your own statistics, analyze your own data and create your own graphs/charts for publication.
3. Keep a journal
During IR residency interviews, you must be able to show that you actually understand the research you’re working on, and can articulate how you contributed and what you learned from the experience. They understand that you are just a medical student, and they do not expect you to know the details of the IR research landscape; that is their job to teach you in residency. Rather, they care more that you demonstrate qualities of commitment, teamwork and being a finisher (i.e., publication), all of which are essential components of being a good resident.
With that being said, if you are fortunate enough to have a bountiful number of projects listed on your CV, it can be difficult to recall something you did 3 years ago during MS1. Keep a journal of your research contributions during medical school and the MS4 ERAS version of you will thank your past self.
4. What’s the goal?
It is important to define the goals of a project with your mentor. For example: what conference/journal are you submitting to? Is there a deadline for abstracts for that conference? Will this project be presented as a poster or oral presentation? Defining these goals early on will help you develop a plan of attack instead of blindly collecting data. This will also be a good opportunity to get to know the major conferences in your specialty (SIR, CIRSE, RSNA and SIO for IR conferences).
Another important point that is often overlooked is defining authorship. This can get quite political, and it is not unheard of a student to do a large amount of work on a project, only to be listed as third author. Advocate for yourself early with your mentor and define where you will end up on the author list for a project. Getting your name on any publication is great, but being the first author holds a tremendous amount of weight because it shows that you took full ownership of the project.
5. Mindset
Most medical students did not apply to medical school to do research, or else they would have pursued a PhD. The honest truth is that most medical students are using research as a means to an end, and that end is matching into the residency program of their choice. This mindset is often the culprit for the negative feelings towards research during medical school. Needless to say, it is very easy to get discouraged when you have to balance hours of chart review with pre-clinical exam/shelf studying after a long day of lecture or clinical duties.
However, as the old saying goes, the only two things you can control are your attitude and effort. Instead of seeing research as a chore, try to see it as another learning opportunity. What does it actually take to get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal? How do the politics of academia influence research? What are the big trials done in IR that influence the way we practice today? None of this is taught in medical school, but these lessons are just as important to learn and can give you an advantage as both a resident and an attending.
In short, having a more positive and productive attitude towards research can be a powerful educational tool.
Research is not everything, but it is becoming more important in this age of pass/fail academics. Hopefully these five points can give you tangible ways to either start or improve your research career as a medical student.
